Perhaps the most important thing to remember as a guiding principle in understanding the National Football League is that the NFL, at its core, is a business. Yes, it’s in the business of sport, and America’s most popular sport at that. But the League exists because it continues to generate heroic amounts of money, it’s primary reason for being.
If you recognize this truism, then it’s easier to understand the NFL’s increasingly complex relationship with gambling, a pastime that’s both vital and still potentially toxic to the future of the League. Over most of its history, the NFL took a hard rhetorical stand against wagering on the sport, giving at least the public posture that betting on football threatens the inherent integrity of the game. That changed a few years ago when courts nation-wide legalized sports gaming, a pastime once relegated only to Las Vegas and illegal but well-trafficked operations, largely driven by organized crime. But recently, as companies like FanDuel and Draftkings and Caesars built massive, app based online sports gambling businesses, the NFL did a 180, not only endorsing the concept but bringing them on as significant sponsors. If you watched the Super Bowl, you’d assume the only products in the US are gambling apps and cryptocurrency, which are basically the same thing. As America shifted, the NFL’s business proposition shifted with it.
That left the League vulnerable to the inevitable situation of Calvin Ridley, an Atlanta wide receiver who this past season during a mental health break from his team placed $1500 of bets on NFL football through one of these very sports gaming operations – Hard Rock Casino, if you’re interested. Regardless of the NFL’s newfound model, one thing remains resolute. Players and coaches cannot, under any condition, bet on their sport. You can do a whole lot of really bad things and remain a professional football player. But you cannot gamble on the NFL. And it doesn’t matter whether you’re betting on your own team or someone else. Betting on sports from the inside, in this case the NFL, is the original sin.
For that, Calvin Ridley has been suspended for a full year, at which point he can apply to work again. A full year is a lifetime in a sport where the average employee lasts three. It was clearly done to send a message. That while the NFL supports and benefits financially from sports gambling, it condemns sports gambling in the strongest possible terms. If that sounds confusing and hypocritical, perhaps it is. But regardless, this is the fine line the NFL has chosen to tread. We love gambling, but it’s also a scourge on the game. I must pay the rent; I can’t pay the rent.
There’s a ton to unpackage here, most of which goes beyond the scope of this commentary. But a few thoughts. First, let’s not make Calvin Ridley into some kind of hero. Regardless of the ills of the NFL, Ridley, like all professional athletes, knew he wasn’t allowed to do this. Now whether a year is the right length, I have no idea. But he’s no martyr here.
Second, do not forget that gambling is an addictive vice like a whole lot of other sanctioned and semi-legalized constructs in this country. I apologize for the puritanical musings, but just because most people gamble without it ruining their lives, don’t discount its potential for harm. I say the same thing about state sanctioned lotteries that are the bane of anyone simply trying to buy a soda at a gas station. Sports gambling is, in some ways, yet another opiate for the masses. And for that reason alone, the NFL should have stayed away.
And third, the NFL is both hypocritical and consistent at the same time. Hypocritical for taking money from gambling but consistent in suspending Ridley. Not doing so could destroy the premise of the case, where the game remains sacred above all else. And, not to sound all corporate, but Ridley and other NFL athletes do get paid a lot for their services. So following a few simple rules does seem pretty standard corporate policy.
In the end, though, this is a lot simpler than we think. The NFL has one primary goal. To make more money today than yesterday. And to make their teams more valuable next year than this. Rinse and repeat. With that guiding principle, this has all gone according to form. That’s not a critique but simply an analysis. Just follow the money, which in Calvin Ridley’s case was pretty easy to do. Because at its core, remember, the NFL is just a business.
Keith Strudler is the director of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. You can follow him on twitter at @KeithStrudler
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